UK HOUSING MARKET BUSIEST SINCE 2007

07 September 2021

2021 has, so far, produced the UK’s busiest housing market since 2007. Over 950,000 sales are estimated to have taken place across the UK in the first seven months of 2021, which is 30 per cent higher than in any year since 2007. Predictions forecast that sales volumes will top 1.5 million by the end of the year.

In June, Rightmove reported that “frenzied buyer activity” had driven the average asking price for a home in Britain to a record high. Presently, Rightmove accounts for 90 per cent of listed properties in the UK, observing that the first six months of 2021 had been the busiest it had recorded since 2000. It estimated there to be a shortfall of 225,000 properties on the market.

The growth in housing market activity was driven by the UK government’s Stamp Duty relief, an effective tax break, on the first £500,000 of a residential property which ended on 30th June, but also, the pandemic and its effect on shifting lifestyle preferences which has driven house prices across the country.

Expectations that the market would ease after the Stamp Duty relief deadline passed at the end of June were unfounded when data from Nationwide revealed UK average house prices rose by a further £5,000 in August alone. The average price of a UK home is now £248,857.

Agents reported that August’s house price growth was largely driven by the shortage of available properties. Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank commented: “The housing market has clearly lost none of its core strength, and rising business confidence and rock-bottom interest rates signal a strong end to the year, even as the stamp duty holiday winds down completely.”

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